BHS is in the conversation to play in Div. 3A finals

It’s interesting to look at the CIF-Southern Section Div. 3A standings on Max Preps and imagine what the playoff picture may look like at season’s end.Three teams have a legit shot to be in the finals. One is Chaminade (16-2), one is Oak Park (10-6) and the other is Burroughs (12-4) if it can find a way to...

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Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

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Posted Jan. 12, 2013 at 12:35 PM
Updated Jan 12, 2013 at 12:38 PM

Posted Jan. 12, 2013 at 12:35 PM
Updated Jan 12, 2013 at 12:38 PM

RIDGECREST

Chaminade has already beaten Oak Park 79-43 on Dec. 13, so the Eagles are definitely the team to beat and will probably blow through its side of the bracket during the playoffs, so Burroughs will need the two or three seed to have a real shot at making it to the Southern Section finals.

Right now, according to Max Preps, Burroughs is in fourth place (15.1 MPR) behind a 5-10 Santa Margarita team (18.8 MPR). If the Burros can surpass Santa Margarita, it will be huge.

That one-spot change could set up a game between Burroughs and Oak Park to go to the Southern Section finals.

The two have a common opponent in Carter. Oak Park beat Carter 77-18 on Dec. 8, while the Burros beat Carter much less convincingly 62-45 on Dec. 27, so the Burros still have plenty of work to do at the end of the season to make up ground.

The most important quality this team has is that it is willing to put in the extra time at the gym to continue to get better. Aubrey Hayes and Joanna O’Neil make sure they shoot extra jump shots on the weekends and spend a lot of their free time on the court. So does Alex Simmons and Kaitlynn Roberts. Madison Schiller played all summer with traveling teams to continue to improve.

Although Hayes and Schiller are the youngest players on the team, they have logged as many minutes on the floor as some of the seniors on the team because they play as much as possible.

Rachelle Schiller may have been the most important pickup of the offseason. Against the Aztecs, she was the single most dominant player on the floor just by completely smothering Barstow point guard Marissa Dado.

Schiller’s speed and ability to stay in front of whoever she’s guarding has brought the Burros’ defensive prowess to an entirely different level.

Anyways, all that extra time on the floor, working hard, and working on improving their weaknesses at practice and in their free time, has paid off with the Burros putting together the best season the school has had in at least a decade, but it’s not time to relax and be happy just yet.

If anything, it’s time to reassess goals and put in an all-out assault type of work ethic to achieve something that is very rare at Burroughs.

How many teams have made it to a CIF final in the last 10 years? Not many. How about the last five? If my memory serves me correctly, not one team has. If that can’t motivate you, nothing will.

Right now, the most important thing that the Burros can do is keep hungry for more. There is a Desert Sky League title shot still awaiting and there is that three seed (or maybe even the two seed) waiting for a team to go out and take.

Page 2 of 2 - I think a win against Silverado would get the Burros the bump they need, but Silverado is a quality basketball team so the Burros can’t fall behind 18-2 to start the game again. The Hawks led 56-5 at halftime of their game Granite Hills game, which is incredibly impressive.

I don’t care if Granite Hills hasn’t won a game all season. When you can score 56 points in a half, you’re scoring efficiently.

The Hawks have a lot of athletes, but when the Burros took away Silverado’s penetration opportunities, made Ebony Black-Smith pass the ball instead of pass faking on her way to the basket for easy layups and protected the basketball so Silverado couldn’t turn turnovers into transition buckets, the Hawks had a tough time playing solid half-court basketball.

Almost all of the Silverado points against the Burros came by making layups and forcing turnovers, so the Hawks can be beaten.

I don’t know how the year will finish, but I do know it should be fun to watch the Burros push themselves to attain goals that are truly rare in Ridgecrest.